June brought a lot of sales for video games, even Goozex was having tokenless trades for the entire month. So I’ll be playing a host of new games in the coming months. I received and finished Assassins Creed first.  While I enjoyed it, it only took about a week to finish and got a little repetitive after the first few missions.  Also it required a lot of repetitive button pushing that really started to make my hand sore.  I know that’s common with video games, but this was worse than most other games.

Now I’m working on Bioshock 2. I think it’s a good sequel to the first, but it could almost be an add-on as the game engine doesn’t seem changed that much, other than perhaps maybe running a little smoother on ps3. I will post another update soon since I’m almost done with it.

When I initially saw this headline, I read it as “Baby Blubber”

So I haven’t spent a lot of time playing games lately.  I went on vacation and was extremely busy at work before that… but I started playing a bit over the Memorial Day weekend.  I decided I would get back on Ghostbusters.  I made a lot of progress, and am enjoying the game a lot more than before.  It is still difficult chasing those ghosts but I guess that’s the point.

The story here is nothing to write home about. Now that I’ve played it more, it’s completely a rehash of what happened in the movies.. Started off in the Sedgewick hotel, went to the Library and then the Museum.  But I don’t really play video games for the story…  most don’t really have any decent story, so a good story is more of just a bonus to me.

While on vacation, my wife brought along a book that I started reading after she finished.  This is not one I probably would have picked out myself but it is not bad.  I saw the Kite Runner movie, and enjoyed it, but both of these are pretty depressing stories.  In case you are not familiar with either of these, they were written by an Afghan-American and mostly document pre-taliban days in Afghanistan and the contrast of how they are now after the Taliban and the US invasion.

I have had another book called Deep Storm.  I made it through the first chapter a long time ago, but never got into it.  It’s more of something I would pick to read and expect I’ll probably start it again after I finish this book.

So things weren’t going so well in Ghostbusters.  I had requested it at the same time I did Dead Space, but the guy sent it pretty late and it just now got here.

Ghostbusters plays out like a new sequel to the movie franchise.   You are a new recruit and learning the ropes.  And you get to use some new gadget’s they’ve come up with.

Sounds pretty cool if you were a kid of the 80s like I am, right?  Well it’s far from easy to the hit those ghosts with a particle beam and get them into the trap.  So I’ve put that game aside and started playing the new arrival:  Dead Space.  This is an older game, but still pretty decent graphics.  It plays pretty smoothly and has decent weapons.  It’s kind of creepy, mutant monster things keep jumping out at me.  The only problem is that I only played about an hour and got stuck maybe 4 times.  Not because it was difficult, just because it wasn’t very clear what you were supposed to do.  Before quitting the last time, I finally figured out how to look back at the instructions they give you.  So maybe that will help, but it’s late… I need to get to bed.

I finished up Arkham Asylum.  I would say it’s a very good game, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I sent it off soon after.  I went about a week without playing anything, busy at work and around the house.  But I finally requested both Ghostbusters and Dead Space.  No idea where Dead Space is because the guy did not confirm it was shipped or add a tracking number.

Ghostbusters however, arrived today.  I played for maybe an hour before posting this.  It seems pretty decent, however I already find the proton steam a little difficult to wield.  I bet it will get easier after I get a hang of it.  It plays out very much like another Ghostbusters movie.  Even though it’s not supposed to be the first movie, it’s going through the hotel and you have to get “Slimer” again.  Anyway I’ll be playing this one probably unless I get and find Dead Space to be too much fun.

Just finished this book. I really enjoyed it.  Just thought I would share in case you were lookin’ for scifi book to read.

via imgs.xkcd.com

This is (and the other videos posted by this user) are making the rounds lately…  kind of creepy but cool.

I finished Killzone 2 finally…  That last boss area was a real bitch.  I did enjoy the game, but the cont  I also sent off a few games via Goozex, I decided it was time to give Batman: Arkham Asylum a try.  I really have just barely begun.  The following is my initial reaction.

I was surprised how visually appealing this game is.  Video games based off movies or comic books have notoriously been bad.  This one is really based on a specific batman movie, although perhaps they used some elements from the earlier Michael Keaton Batman movies.  And perhaps I see a little of Heath Ledger’s Joker, but not nearly as creepy.  I’m thinking it’s based more off the comic books, but I really haven’t read those so that is mostly a guess.

In summary I think it’s a surprisingly well made game.  It seems to be long enough to suit me, unless I suddenly shoot through 50% of the game overnight somehow.  One odd thing, the batarang in some ways reminds me of the glaive in Dark Sector.  That game was underrated I think, but it certainly wasn’t up to the quality level of this game.  I doubt they stole the idea from that, but just the only way to really enhance a thrown device really.

This is my most recent acquisition from Goozex.  I finished Resistance 2 and inFamous so I sent them back off for others to enjoy.  I just received Uncharted tonight.  This is my initial first reactions of this game.

Uncharted is an action/adventure/shooter.  That’s right.  I’m not sure many other games have combined those elements very well, but Uncharted seems to.  In many points, it’s very much a platformer, I find myself jumping around, from ledge to ledge, climb up on a wall here, shoot at a bunch of guys, find treasure, etc.  It kind of reminds me of a modern Pitfall but with guns instead of a bullwhip.  It even has a pretty decent story, relatively speaking.  It’s not going to win an Oscar anytime soon, but I would say it’s better than most.  So far after maybe 2 hours of gamplay I am thoroughly enjoying it.

I still haven’t finished Killzone 2.  I won’t say it’s a bad game, quite the opposite, it is very well made.  The graphics are some of the best I have seen on the PS3.  The gameplay is intense and difficult in many parts.  This is probably why I haven’t finished it yet.  It’s so difficult I end up getting stuck in parts and the controls are just too difficult for me to stay at it.  I just get too frustrated.  That is a common theme in gaming, frustration, but sometimes the payoff just isn’t worth the effort.  I think I’ll get around to finishing it eventually.

Update
So I finished this game already on the normal difficulty.  It took 10 hours and 30 minutes.  I only started it earlier this week (3 days ago to be exact) so I have to say it wasn’t very long.  Sure I could play it again on hard or super hard, try to get all the trophies or I could have started it on hard to begin with.  But that’s not the point, that just means more bullets to kill enemies, more enemies, less ammo laying around, more small blinky things to find.  It would make it more difficult but it might take it longer to finish but it wouldn’t make the game any *longer* really, same chapters, same scenes, etc.  I liked it I just guess you could say it left me wanting more, a lot more.

I think I mostly find this interesting because I have never been able drink diet sodas when given the option of regular.  But honestly, I don’t drink many sodas at all right now, maybe one a week.  I don’t feel too bad about that.

Stargate Studios Virtual Backlot Reel 2009 (via stargatefilms)

Surprised how much green screen is in use just on TV…

So I finished Resistance 2 on normal difficulty.  I have to say, that game is pretty tough on that level.  I considered playing through again on Hard, but I had already received inFamous from Goozex so instead I started playing that.

inFamous is a 3rd person shooter.  It’s not really traditional in that all your weapons are electricity powers you gained from an “incident”.  I’ve played through a good bit of it already.  I wouldn’t say I’m close to finishing it yet, because I’m not sure how much is left, but I have put in a good amount of time on it already.  Even though the main power of your character is his electricity weapons, he can climb walls and fall from great heights as much as spider man could.  There are main missions that advance you through the game, and in between those you can do side missions that get you experience points, karma and clear out parts of the city of enemies.

After playing Killzone 2 and Resistance 2 lately, this one is a refreshing change of pace.  Even though it is essentially still a shooter, it’s a different overall concept.  You basically have unlimited ammo, you can refill your electricity all over.  Instead of having a large variety of weapons, you have one main ‘weapon’ and a few variations on it.  Some other games make different parts of missions more about using a new or special weapon, in this game it’s more about the strategy of going about something.  And the karma factors in too.  I don’t see that many advantages of going for bad karma, you just miss a couple of side missions.  But I don’t think you can easily do both similar to the way you can in fallout 3.  So I’ve been doing the good path.

I don’t have any new games after this one.  I still haven’t finished Killzone 2 so I guess I’d go back to that one.  Resistance 2 has robust online play, but I’ve always been pretty let down by how much I suck and how annoying the other online players are.  Usually kids cussing and each other names.  Who needs that?  I’m thinking of sending it back to someone in Goozex while it’s still worth a little.  600pts is nothing to sneeze at.

I recieved and stated playing Resistance 2.  I loved the original and was happy to finally acquiring the game via Goozex. I would say the genre of the Resistance games is exactly like that of Killzone 2. They are basic shooters with lots of diverse weapons and pretty smart enemy AI. Both of these franchises are PlayStation exclusives. I think I like Resistance 2 better. It’s a little smoother and just has more “fun value” to me. That’s not to say Killzone 2 isn’t still a superb game.

I’ll be honest, I can see where Resistance kind of cheats using textures for objects that would be 3D objects in other game, but due to the speed and superb gameplay, I can excuse it. The only other thing that might be considered a negative of these games is that you can finish the campaigns fairly quickly. Other people can probably finish them faster than me, but in the first play through in both I think I’ll probably finish them within a couple of months each. I only play a few hours a week so that’s not a whole lot of gameplay really. I spent nearly 200 hours playing Fallout 3. But honestly, I’m happy to play a game, thoroughly enjoy it, and trade it off via goozex rather than have to be obsessed with a game like FO3.  I should receive inFamous soon as well.  It’s pretty different from these last two.  I have played the demo and enjoyed it, so I look forward to that one as well.

Café Tacuba - Volver a Comenzar

This has become one of my favorite songs.  It’s from the LittleBigPlanet sound track.  I can’t even understand most of the lyrics but it’s a damn good song.

By the way, LittleBigPlanet is probably one of the best games I’ve ever played as well.  It’s not an ultraviolent shooter, but still quite engaging…  I don’t even have kids, but I love this family friendly game.